Name: Francis Ngannou Details Working in Sand mines at Age 10
Uploaded: 2021-02-09T18:52:24.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Francis Ngannou Details Working in Sand mines at Age 10' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Francis Ngannou Details Working in Sand mines at Age 10' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-02-09. Transcript available.

One of the things that I read about you was that you worked in a sand mine when
you were young, that you dug sand all day.
Yeah, that was growing up.
I was about 10 years old when I started that because I was in the village and
where I grew up, after leaving my aunt's house, I went to my grandma and we had
to do something.
You know, we had to work to contribute at home, to buy oil, to buy food, and
also for our scholarship, for books.
So we have to do, you have to work.
And that's how we started, even though that work was meant for adults, but we
didn't have any option.
So we take what we had at the time.
Growing up doing something like that, that's got to, first of all, it had to be
very difficult.
Like digging sand.
It's also, your body must develop very strong from doing something like that.
At 10 years old, as you're growing, as you're maturing, doing something that's
that difficult, it must have made you really fucking strong.
Yeah, I hope so.
Well, obviously it did, but it's just genetics too.
There's a lot of good things that came your way that way.
But also the difficulty of doing something when you're that young, such hard
labor.
I mean, it had to teach you discipline.
There had to be like some positive.
It's terrible that you had to do that at 10, but there had to be some positive
aspects of it, some positive repercussions of it.
Oh, definitely.
I mean, I didn't like my life.
And I felt, I always feel like I miss my childhood.
Like it's something missing in it because it's been too much frustration in my
life.
You know, like I had to work by that age and it wasn't enough.
Like when school started, when school starts all the time, I'm going to go to
school and most of the time still didn't have a pen to take notes or a notebook
to write on it.
Sometimes no shoes or clothes, just have to wear like my uniform was tear all
over.
I was frustrated to look around and see other kids looking good.
You know, they went to the vacation, they went in vacation to this family
member, came back with all brand new stuff.
And I was just there looking crappy with my, I had to like take my old book and
look for empty page to take a note, expecting, hoping that when I have a book,
I'll copy the note from this year in the new book, but at first I have to use
the, I always had to use the old book.
And most of the time, teachers, they don't understand why you don't have a book.
They don't understand why you don't have a pen.
Sometimes they just think that you didn't tell your parents, you should tell
your parents so they can buy it for you.
They don't understand that you can not just afford it, you know, your parents
can't and they'll kick you out from the classroom, maybe just to say, go tell
your parents.
And you couldn't tell them we can't afford it.
You didn't want to say it.
Then they knew, but what can they do?
Nothing, you know, because most of the time it's going to be, even with the
money that I work,
that they're going to buy my pen or my book.
But you work sometimes and they don't pay you right away.
It's maybe after months, months, you know, so all the process.
And sometimes they'll just kick you out from the school because of the
scholarship fee you haven't paid on time.
So they kick you out.
So I was a subject, I was subject of shame to other kids, you know, because all
the time when they kick you out in front of 50, 60 students,
it's not a good thing, you know, and I couldn't have a friend because you know
how things work.
You have to be able to bring something on the table to enjoy, you know, but
since you don't even have a pen or a book to take note,
nobody expects you to bring a lunch or to buy something in the break, break
time to share with them.
So they don't want to share with you since they don't have any hope that you
will have something to share with them.
And I was always in retreat.
I always stay in retreat.
And that's how I technically grew up by myself.
I end up like not even trying to have a friend.
I'm like, okay, this is my situation.
Maybe I just, I feel okay.
Just retreat myself, not just to try all the time.
I get shame of it all the time.
You know, I always, I retreat and don't have to deal with these people with
their opinion on me.
And, uh, but that motivated me at some point.
I'm like, damn, look, this kid, they are looking at me like I'm, I was nothing.
But technically I was more than them because, uh, I'm working, you know, uh,
even though what I have is less than what they have.
I deserve what I have.
I work hard for it.
And they don't do, they don't work, they don't deserve shit.
They are just a kid.
They work and their, their, their parents provide for them.
I'm not just lucky.
I'm not just lucky to have the chance, but I'm still trying, which means I'm
not bad at the end of the day, you know.
So that's, that pushed me to like, from there, I wanted something to prove them
wrong.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to do something that can prove this kid that I'm not
beneath them.
So that gave you motivation?
Yes, that gave me motivation because that frustration, I was full of
frustration and I want to like, drive this into something like, I have to prove
them.
I can go to the party, I can be between, I can have friends as anyone and I
have to work hard than anyone, you know, um, my school was like my, um, middle
school was, I think.
About six miles from home.
So it took me almost two hours to get at school.
So you walked.
Yeah.
So I walked around about two hours.
And, uh, before me, the first student is at least after like 40 minutes work,
you know, so I have to wake up at five, just get ready.
Start work sometime with not, uh, not eating.
Then I get to school and the school, uh, close at maybe four to five.
But since I didn't eat in the morning, uh, by noon, one or two, I'm hungry.
I'm starving.
I can't take it anymore.
I will leave school sometime, you know, just because I was hungry.
Or if I, uh, if I have a chance, if I had a chance to have breakfast or
something, I won't eat before I leave home.
Because I know if I eat at five or six, I will get hungry early.
I will take it at school to eat maybe around 10 so I can resist until the end,
you know.
And that's, uh, how I, I did it my, um, this entire time.
So my, um, my process was all different from, from other kids.
And, uh, nobody could have understand that, you know, he was just on me and I
was the only one knowing what I'm dealing with exactly to get there.
So, and all those things keep, keep frustrating me.
I'm like, I'm going to show this.
I'm going to show them.
How long did you have to work in these, uh, sand mines?
Until I left school.
Until I find out I left school, I was 17.
And then I keep doing it.
So you did it from 10 to 17?
You did it all through school?
Yeah.
And what, that was the only thing to do.
Right.
When did you do it?
Like if you went to school during the day, when did you work in the sand mines?
Over the weekend, over the, um, holidays, because I never, uh, have a chance to
go to, I never had a chance to go to holiday, even for the summer holiday,
which is like three months.
That would be, because we have a tropical climate.
So at that moment we have two seasons, a wet season and dry season.
And that's a wet season.
So it's almost rain all the time.
Kids go to vacation and all those stuff.
Uh, adult doesn't want to work because it's raining all the time.
Guess what?
That was our opportunity when they don't want to work.
So we have a chance to work.
Wow.
Otherwise they will come back to their job.
We will not have job.
Right.
You know, so that was a good opportunity to work under the rain all the time,
like get back home shaking because all day long it's been raining.
So you have to stay active because, uh, uh, uh, because as, as soon as you stop
working, moving, you get cold, you just get freezing.
So you get active.
It forced you to stay active and to work even more.
And our employer will, we love that because you work even more than normal.
And, uh, yeah.
So that's how we, we do it.
And sometime, uh, after school, I will stop at the sand mine.
If I have like a quick job, maybe if a truck comes and, uh, they have to load
it.
If I have a place to load, because you load, they give money to share.
You get something sometime, sometime not.
And when I was a kid, most of the time they kick you out.
Adults didn't want you on it.
I'm like, eh, get away off here.
You know, because the less there are, more money they get.
So they don't want you to fuck around.
Really?
I, I saw that you went, you went back recently and you're taking photos of you
in the,
the sand mine where you worked as a boy.
Did I see that on Instagram?
Yeah.
What was that like?
I always do that.
Yeah?
Yeah.
I mean, when I'm home, I always like to do that.
It's kind of like, it really hurts me to remember everything.
Like where I came from, how he was, you know, every time that I get, when I,
that I go back home, I will go back to those, all those places that I used to
work there.
Like, I hated this thing growing up, or you can imagine.
I hated this sand mine, everything.
I hated my life.
But today, it seems like a fuel for my life today.
I have to fill it, fill it up from that life.
Go back there, go back there, see this, because most people there are still
people that we grew up together.
And he allowed me to see how far I came from, you know?
Like, I think it's the moment that I enjoy the most, it's like those moments,
you know, going back, go to my, the house that I grew up into, even though we
fix it today, it's not the same.
But the environment, like sleeping, have all these nostalgic, wake at five o'clock,
all these animal sounds from outside, the bed, the beds, all those sounds,
which is like very familiar, bring you back from 20 to 25 years ago.
The smells, everything reminds you something, and this is always my best moment.
Like, I can go there and live in the five-star hotel, do some crazy stuff, but
he doesn't, I don't, I don't enjoy that as much.
Like, I don't know how to explain it, but I always do it.
Like, I always go back to the sand mine.
This is like a tradition.
Not just for them, because he helps me, I like it.
I feel like, okay, you know, it's kind of like taking my revenge of life.
Like, okay, I used to be here thinking this, thinking that, dreaming of this,
dreaming of that.
Today, I have this.
Look, that's my car.
Look, that's my truck.
Yeah.
Look, that's my house.
Look, this is my life.
I'm going to fly back to America, even though I'm here.
You know?
Yeah.
So, it's like living a dream.
Yeah.
Because back then, that was just a dream.
A crazy dream.
Unbelievable.
So, I'm living into it right now.
Like, yes, doing this 20 years ago, I was dreaming.
Like, man, how it is to be in the airplane, going somewhere.
Imagine yourself being in the airplane, going to America or to France or
something.
Wow.
And I go back, I do the same shit.
I'm like, guess what?
I'm going back to America in one week.
Right.
You're living the dream.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, it just reminds you.
Just puts you back in that place.
Yeah.
And what is crazy is, like, most of the time is going to be with the same guy
that I grew up with.
Wow.
They're in the same place, doing the same thing.
And...
What is it like for them?
Do they ask you questions?
Like, man, you know, and that's why I feel very lucky just to have a different
mindset,
just to even have a dream, because they don't even have a dream.
Most of those people, like, if you ask them, like, okay, what do you, what is
your dream?
Where would you like to be in, like, one year, five years from now?
He doesn't know.
He gave up a long time ago.
He doesn't give a shit about it.
As long as he has something to eat before he goes to bed, it's okay.
That's it.
And now I'm like, how can somebody live like this?
Right.
But it's their life.
You can't do anything.
I'm like, then you will find someone, some people, which is a little different.
They are like, they have a dream.
They are hoping to change their life.
Those people, over years, you can see the change in their life, improvement,
step by step.
Like, this year, they're going to say, ah, I want to do this.
I wish I can do this.
Next year, guess what?
Even though they didn't do that, they didn't get that done, they get closer.
And next year, and next year, and next year, they move up.
But those who doesn't have a dream, you know, they're just there like that.
Do you find some of the people there that do have a dream look at you and they
get inspired?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Those who has, and I think that's even why some of the reasons will keep me
going back and like even in the foundation.
Like once, I had like a really good friend of mine.
This guy is in the village and he's doing good.
He's doing his businesses, doing good for a village guy.
Like sometimes, I will come there, he will even give me like a whiskey, find a
good whiskey for me.
And he said, man, you know, like you just going in America and come back here
means a lot to us.
Like we grew up together.
That means it's possible for us too.
That drives us through our dream, like motivate us.
Like, yes, if Francis did it, I mean, I might not do the same thing, but I can
get to what I want to, you know.
And I'm like, thank you.
I really appreciate his word.
And he was like very humble, explaining me things.
And yeah.
And that's why I also like doing my foundation.
Like, I like to like tell this kid, like, listen, I'm not a fairy tale.
I'm not a story that you watch on TV or that you read in the book.
I'm a fact.
I grew up here.
Most of you knew me before I even, I even live here, which means it's possible.
You know, as long as you believe in something, in a dream, as long as you have
a dream and believe in yourself, I think a success is just a matter of time.
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Francis Ngannou Details Working in Sand mines at Age 10

One of the things that I read about you was that you worked in a sand mine when
you were young, that you dug sand all day.
Yeah, that was growing up.
I was about 10 years old when I started that because I was in the village and
where I grew up, after leaving my aunt's house, I went to my grandma and we had
to do something.
You know, we had to work to contribute at home, to buy oil, to buy food, and
also for our scholarship, for books.
So we have to do, you have to work.
And that's how we started, even though that work was meant for adults, but we
didn't have any option.
So we take what we had at the time.
Growing up doing something like that, that's got to, first of all, it had to be
very difficult.
Like digging sand.
It's also, your body must develop very strong from doing something like that.
At 10 years old, as you're growing, as you're maturing, doing something that's
that difficult, it must have made you really fucking strong.
Yeah, I hope so.
Well, obviously it did, but it's just genetics too.
There's a lot of good things that came your way that way.
But also the difficulty of doing something when you're that young, such hard
labor.
I mean, it had to teach you discipline.
There had to be like some positive.
It's terrible that you had to do that at 10, but there had to be some positive
aspects of it, some positive repercussions of it.
Oh, definitely.
I mean, I didn't like my life.
And I felt, I always feel like I miss my childhood.
Like it's something missing in it because it's been too much frustration in my
life.
You know, like I had to work by that age and it wasn't enough.
Like when school started, when school starts all the time, I'm going to go to
school and most of the time still didn't have a pen to take notes or a notebook
to write on it.
Sometimes no shoes or clothes, just have to wear like my uniform was tear all
over.
I was frustrated to look around and see other kids looking good.
You know, they went to the vacation, they went in vacation to this family
member, came back with all brand new stuff.
And I was just there looking crappy with my, I had to like take my old book and
look for empty page to take a note, expecting, hoping that when I have a book,
I'll copy the note from this year in the new book, but at first I have to use
the, I always had to use the old book.
And most of the time, teachers, they don't understand why you don't have a book.
They don't understand why you don't have a pen.
Sometimes they just think that you didn't tell your parents, you should tell
your parents so they can buy it for you.
They don't understand that you can not just afford it, you know, your parents
can't and they'll kick you out from the classroom, maybe just to say, go tell
your parents.
And you couldn't tell them we can't afford it.
You didn't want to say it.
Then they knew, but what can they do?
Nothing, you know, because most of the time it's going to be, even with the
money that I work,
that they're going to buy my pen or my book.
But you work sometimes and they don't pay you right away.
It's maybe after months, months, you know, so all the process.
And sometimes they'll just kick you out from the school because of the
scholarship fee you haven't paid on time.
So they kick you out.
So I was a subject, I was subject of shame to other kids, you know, because all
the time when they kick you out in front of 50, 60 students,
it's not a good thing, you know, and I couldn't have a friend because you know
how things work.
You have to be able to bring something on the table to enjoy, you know, but
since you don't even have a pen or a book to take note,
nobody expects you to bring a lunch or to buy something in the break, break
time to share with them.
So they don't want to share with you since they don't have any hope that you
will have something to share with them.
And I was always in retreat.
I always stay in retreat.
And that's how I technically grew up by myself.
I end up like not even trying to have a friend.
I'm like, okay, this is my situation.
Maybe I just, I feel okay.
Just retreat myself, not just to try all the time.
I get shame of it all the time.
You know, I always, I retreat and don't have to deal with these people with
their opinion on me.
And, uh, but that motivated me at some point.
I'm like, damn, look, this kid, they are looking at me like I'm, I was nothing.
But technically I was more than them because, uh, I'm working, you know, uh,
even though what I have is less than what they have.
I deserve what I have.
I work hard for it.
And they don't do, they don't work, they don't deserve shit.
They are just a kid.
They work and their, their, their parents provide for them.
I'm not just lucky.
I'm not just lucky to have the chance, but I'm still trying, which means I'm
not bad at the end of the day, you know.
So that's, that pushed me to like, from there, I wanted something to prove them
wrong.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to do something that can prove this kid that I'm not
beneath them.
So that gave you motivation?
Yes, that gave me motivation because that frustration, I was full of
frustration and I want to like, drive this into something like, I have to prove
them.
I can go to the party, I can be between, I can have friends as anyone and I
have to work hard than anyone, you know, um, my school was like my, um, middle
school was, I think.
About six miles from home.
So it took me almost two hours to get at school.
So you walked.
Yeah.
So I walked around about two hours.
And, uh, before me, the first student is at least after like 40 minutes work,
you know, so I have to wake up at five, just get ready.
Start work sometime with not, uh, not eating.
Then I get to school and the school, uh, close at maybe four to five.
But since I didn't eat in the morning, uh, by noon, one or two, I'm hungry.
I'm starving.
I can't take it anymore.
I will leave school sometime, you know, just because I was hungry.
Or if I, uh, if I have a chance, if I had a chance to have breakfast or
something, I won't eat before I leave home.
Because I know if I eat at five or six, I will get hungry early.
I will take it at school to eat maybe around 10 so I can resist until the end,
you know.
And that's, uh, how I, I did it my, um, this entire time.
So my, um, my process was all different from, from other kids.
And, uh, nobody could have understand that, you know, he was just on me and I
was the only one knowing what I'm dealing with exactly to get there.
So, and all those things keep, keep frustrating me.
I'm like, I'm going to show this.
I'm going to show them.
How long did you have to work in these, uh, sand mines?
Until I left school.
Until I find out I left school, I was 17.
And then I keep doing it.
So you did it from 10 to 17?
You did it all through school?
Yeah.
And what, that was the only thing to do.
Right.
When did you do it?
Like if you went to school during the day, when did you work in the sand mines?
Over the weekend, over the, um, holidays, because I never, uh, have a chance to
go to, I never had a chance to go to holiday, even for the summer holiday,
which is like three months.
That would be, because we have a tropical climate.
So at that moment we have two seasons, a wet season and dry season.
And that's a wet season.
So it's almost rain all the time.
Kids go to vacation and all those stuff.
Uh, adult doesn't want to work because it's raining all the time.
Guess what?
That was our opportunity when they don't want to work.
So we have a chance to work.
Wow.
Otherwise they will come back to their job.
We will not have job.
Right.
You know, so that was a good opportunity to work under the rain all the time,
like get back home shaking because all day long it's been raining.
So you have to stay active because, uh, uh, uh, because as, as soon as you stop
working, moving, you get cold, you just get freezing.
So you get active.
It forced you to stay active and to work even more.
And our employer will, we love that because you work even more than normal.
And, uh, yeah.
So that's how we, we do it.
And sometime, uh, after school, I will stop at the sand mine.
If I have like a quick job, maybe if a truck comes and, uh, they have to load
it.
If I have a place to load, because you load, they give money to share.
You get something sometime, sometime not.
And when I was a kid, most of the time they kick you out.
Adults didn't want you on it.
I'm like, eh, get away off here.
You know, because the less there are, more money they get.
So they don't want you to fuck around.
Really?
I, I saw that you went, you went back recently and you're taking photos of you
in the,
the sand mine where you worked as a boy.
Did I see that on Instagram?
Yeah.
What was that like?
I always do that.
Yeah?
Yeah.
I mean, when I'm home, I always like to do that.
It's kind of like, it really hurts me to remember everything.
Like where I came from, how he was, you know, every time that I get, when I,
that I go back home, I will go back to those, all those places that I used to
work there.
Like, I hated this thing growing up, or you can imagine.
I hated this sand mine, everything.
I hated my life.
But today, it seems like a fuel for my life today.
I have to fill it, fill it up from that life.
Go back there, go back there, see this, because most people there are still
people that we grew up together.
And he allowed me to see how far I came from, you know?
Like, I think it's the moment that I enjoy the most, it's like those moments,
you know, going back, go to my, the house that I grew up into, even though we
fix it today, it's not the same.
But the environment, like sleeping, have all these nostalgic, wake at five o'clock,
all these animal sounds from outside, the bed, the beds, all those sounds,
which is like very familiar, bring you back from 20 to 25 years ago.
The smells, everything reminds you something, and this is always my best moment.
Like, I can go there and live in the five-star hotel, do some crazy stuff, but
he doesn't, I don't, I don't enjoy that as much.
Like, I don't know how to explain it, but I always do it.
Like, I always go back to the sand mine.
This is like a tradition.
Not just for them, because he helps me, I like it.
I feel like, okay, you know, it's kind of like taking my revenge of life.
Like, okay, I used to be here thinking this, thinking that, dreaming of this,
dreaming of that.
Today, I have this.
Look, that's my car.
Look, that's my truck.
Yeah.
Look, that's my house.
Look, this is my life.
I'm going to fly back to America, even though I'm here.
You know?
Yeah.
So, it's like living a dream.
Yeah.
Because back then, that was just a dream.
A crazy dream.
Unbelievable.
So, I'm living into it right now.
Like, yes, doing this 20 years ago, I was dreaming.
Like, man, how it is to be in the airplane, going somewhere.
Imagine yourself being in the airplane, going to America or to France or
something.
Wow.
And I go back, I do the same shit.
I'm like, guess what?
I'm going back to America in one week.
Right.
You're living the dream.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, it just reminds you.
Just puts you back in that place.
Yeah.
And what is crazy is, like, most of the time is going to be with the same guy
that I grew up with.
Wow.
They're in the same place, doing the same thing.
And...
What is it like for them?
Do they ask you questions?
Like, man, you know, and that's why I feel very lucky just to have a different
mindset,
just to even have a dream, because they don't even have a dream.
Most of those people, like, if you ask them, like, okay, what do you, what is
your dream?
Where would you like to be in, like, one year, five years from now?
He doesn't know.
He gave up a long time ago.
He doesn't give a shit about it.
As long as he has something to eat before he goes to bed, it's okay.
That's it.
And now I'm like, how can somebody live like this?
Right.
But it's their life.
You can't do anything.
I'm like, then you will find someone, some people, which is a little different.
They are like, they have a dream.
They ar